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CANADA& US - Saskatchewan's Premier says strong voices are needed on both sides of the Canada-US border to speak to the importance of trade, Bruce Cochrane writes.

Yesterday the Iowa House of Representatives and the Iowa Senate passed resolutions declaring 15 March as Canada Day at the Capitol and recognizing the importance of trade between Iowa and Canada.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, on hand to address both houses of the Iowa General Assembly, noted much like the state of Iowa, the province of Saskatchewan is an agricultural powerhouse and, like Iowa, Saskatchewan seeks to trade and to trade freely and fairly.

Brad Wall-Premier Saskatchewan

Last year Iowa had a trade surplus with the province of Saskatchewan.

From you we brought tractors and trailers.

We bought bulldozers and scrapers, about 363 million dollars worth of goods and from us you purchased about 355 million dollars worth of canola oil and live animals and potash fertilizer for your crops that you grow here.

But ours is a relationship that goes beyond strictly trading primary resources or even value added products, it's a value chain.

Consider that tractors that have been assembled in Waterloo at the John Deer Assembly plant are purchased by farmers in my province, they use it to harvest oats, the oats are sold back to Iowa in Iowa and at Cedar Rapids they make them into Cheerios or the cereal that we can never get our kids to eat, the oatmeal.

That is a value chain.

There are literally thousand of people in my province that depend on that relationship for their quality of life and it's true of your constituents as well.

That's the kind of relationship that's worth being vigilant about and diligent about especially at a time such as this when we are talking about North American trade.

Premier Wall notes the US has a trade surplus with Canada.

He says Canada values trade, Iowa values trade and so in this debate we voices like those assembled at the State Capitol and back home to speak to the importance of trade, to preserve it and to enhance it.